1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle seat that has a function of protecting an occupant from a load that is input from the side of the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Since most vehicle seats are not provided with a structure that rigidly receives a load input from the side with a frame, during a side impact to the vehicle or the like, this vehicle seat itself is not capable of efficiently receiving the impact energy.
As a vehicle seat that deals with this problem, a vehicle seat device has been proposed in which a reinforcing member is provided between left and right side frames of a seatback frame having an approximately rectangular frame shape in order to connect both frames, and as a result of that reinforcement the frame strength near the chest height of the occupant is increased (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2005-153839).
This vehicle seat disposes the reinforcing member having a large cross-sectional area in a slanting manner from the exterior side to the interior side in the vehicle width direction, receives the load during a side impact to the vehicle that has been input at the chest height of the occupant by the seatback frame and the reinforcing member, and is able to efficiently transmit the load to a center console portion in the middle in the width direction of the vehicle.
Because many functional components such as a lumbar support for enhancing the riding comfort of the occupant and an active headrest for preventing whiplash are built into the seatback portion of the vehicle seat, and the need to ensure the occupying space on the rear seat side, the thickness in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle tends to be restricted.
However, in the case of actually adopting the abovementioned conventional vehicle seat, since the reinforcing member having a large cross-sectional area is obliquely constructed with respect to the seatback frame, internalization of the functional components and making the seatback have a thin profile become difficult.
The present invention was achieved in view of the above circumstances, and has an object of providing a vehicle seat that can reliably receive a load that is input from the side of the vehicle with the seatback portion without greatly occupying space in the thickness direction of the seatback.